TRANMERE Rovers host Notts County in the first game of their 2024/25 campaign this Saturday and manager Nigel Adkins is predicting great things from his squad as he prepares for his first full season with the club.

Rovers have boosted their ranks in the summer, bringing in the likes of Cameron Norman, Sam Finley, Omari Patrick, Declan Drysdale and Josh Davison, to freshen up a side that finished a disappointing 13th in League Two last season.

"The ambition is to get promoted," said Adkins, who confirmed Josh Hawkes, Sam Taylor, Drysdale and Finley had all picked up injuries in pre-season friendly games. "I think every club should be aspiring to do that. If I'm a supporter I want to hear that my club wants to try and get promoted.

"The players know the ambition is promotion. We all know that is going to be very challenging for everybody in the division but the aim is to always win the next game - we know we're not going to win every game we play but can we put ourselves in a position to strive to win each game, learn the lessons and be ready for the next game. 

"Can we be in the race with 10 games to go and be there or there abouts to give ourselves the opportunity for an automatic place or via the play offs."

With a full pre-season under his belt and a say in the transfer market, Adkins believes he is far better prepared than when he was parachuted into the Rovers hot seat following Ian Dawes' sacking. 

He said: "I took over permanently in November and we tried to organise a few things and steady the ship and we went on a good run. 

"We have had a team who were consistent and we've built on a lot of things and brought in some exceptional players."

Adkins is also relishing welcoming back the Prenton Park faithful who he believes will have a huge part to play in Rovers' success or otherwise this season. 

"Every game at Prenton Park is great," he said. "It's our home and everyone will want to come on down and meet their mates who they might not have seen all summer.

"It's a great thing because talking is brilliant - we all live in different walks of society but sometimes we have a belonging and that's supporting Tranmere Rovers at our home, which is Prenton Park where we can sit and talk and see a team who are going to do everything they can to go and win a game of football."

Adkins added that he and his players had also been taking inspiration from both the Olympic games and a classic movie filmed in Wirral.

He added: "We've got the Olympics going on now but 43 years ago I remember when I first joined Tranmere we used to run around the Bebington Oval.

"We took the lads back there to show them that it's where Chariots of Fire was filmed and we talked about running around there and how it was used to replicate the stadium in Paris in 1924 - it was a little bit of history for the guys and they really grafted."